Challenges and Opportunities for Alliance Missions

Mission leaders of the Alliance national churches will meet in October to seek God’s direction for our movement. Disciple-making, businessmen in missions, compassion ministry and diaspora missions are some of the topics that will be discussed.

The pandemic has brought many challenges to our missionaries and missions leaders as they work hard to be faithful to the calling to bring Christ to all nations. Social distancing and isolation, inability to travel, sickness, financial difficulties, and uncertainty about the next steps are some of the new elements that all missions leaders need to consider. In times such as these, being united as a body of missions leaders to share and pray together is even more important. This is what the AWF Global Network of Mission Leaders is all about: discerning together God’s direction for our movement.

Following the postponement of the Quadrennial Convocation to 2021, the AWF Executive Committee decided to carry the meeting of the 2020 AWF Global Network of Missions Leaders by videoconference. The dates are October 20-22, 2020, during the week previously scheduled for the Quadrennial Convocation. Missions directors of all Alliance national churches are invited.

The meetings will have two parts: presentations about different aspects of missions and discussions about partnership projects.

The following presentations are scheduled on October 20 and 21:

1. Disciple-Making that Leads to Apostolic Church-Planting, presented by Raul Santos, the regional developer for Europe, Central Asia, and the Middle East. Santos is of Filipino origin and serves with the Alliance of Canada.
2. A Platform to Engage Businessmen and Professionals in Missions, presented by Jorge Barra, missions director of the Alliance of Chile.
3. Relief and Development in the Context of Global Missions, presented by Robert Sanou, former director of the Relief and Development Department of the C&MA of Burkina Faso and director of ECHO West Africa Impact Center.
4. Diaspora: Challenges and Opportunities for Missions, presented by a missionary serving with the U.S. Alliance among the diaspora people in Europe.

The ongoing discussions on partnership projects in missions will also be presented.

The meeting will be simultaneously translated into English, Spanish and French.

Because of the different time zones, the meeting will last two hours per day, starting at these times:
Colorado Springs – 6:00 a.m.
Toronto – 8:00 a.m.
São Paulo – 9:00 a.m.
Amsterdam/Paris – 2:00 p.m.
Moscow – 3:00 p.m.
Bangkok/Hanoi/Jakarta – 7:00 p.m.
Hong Kong/Manila – 8:00 p.m.
Seoul – 9:00 p.m.
Canberra 11:00 p.m.